DOWNLOAD: REPORT

* This report is based on research conducted by the “Safeguarding the Heritage of the Near East Initiative,” funded by the US Department of State. Monthly reports reflect reporting from a variety of sources and may contain unverified material. As such, they should be treated as preliminary and subject to change.

• There is increasing evidence of ISIL deliberate destructions of religious heritage places carried out in December 2014, such as the Tomb of Abed al-Qader Bek al-Azm ibn Ahmed Mouayd in Rif Dimashq and the Bir al-Qasr Sufi shrine. (pp. 9–12, 53–55)
• Jabhat Ansar al-Din, other Islamist extremists, and local officials destroyed the tombs of the religious scholar and political activist Sheikh Mohammad Nabhan and his family and exhumed their skeletal remains for relocation. The tombs are located near the al-Keltawia Mosque in the Old City of Aleppo. (pp. 28–34)
• Ross Burns’ Monuments of Syriawebsite has posted a detailed, updated report on heritage damage.
• The Harakat ‘Ahrar al-Sham militia of the Islamic Front in Aleppo allegedly deliberately targeted the Armenian Cathedral (St. Rita Cathedral in the al-Tallal District), hitting it multiple times with mortar fire and inflicting structural damage. (pp. 15–20)
• Numerous unconfirmed reports have been circulating of ISIL deliberate destructions of heritage in Mosul, as well as rampant looting of cultural property and markedly increased extortion (“taxation”).